Monthly Archives: December 2013

A couple of weeks ago, the Selamatkan Yaki team launched the Yaki Exhibition! This exhibition features a selection of yaki photographs taken by Andrew Walmsley, an extremely talented wildlife photographer, as well as several photographs showcasing Selamatkan Yaki’s activities and other yaki-themed artwork. This exhibition is held at Pa’Dior Museum, Tompaso, North Sulawesi. Thanks to our partners, Yayasan Institut Seni Budaya Sulawesi Utara (North Sulawesi Art & Culture Institute) it will be part of their permanent exhibition, so make sure to drop by when you have the chance! For the time being, let’s read more about the preparations behind the exhibition.

It was the night before the “Torang Bacirita” event (we’ll post another story about that soon!) and the team was busy setting up equipment at Pa’Dior. The event was to start at 9.30AM the next morning and everything needed to be ready that night so the morning wouldn’t get too frantic! Some were putting up banners, others were arranging chairs and tables, others were putting up the photographs and text panels. The Yaki Exhibition was to be opened by Dr. Benny J. Mamoto, S.H, M.Si at the start of the “Torang Bacirita” event, so special care was taken in choosing how we would do it. So we went through our options and settled on the classic ribbon-cutting ceremony!

Even with all the preparations we did the previous night, the morning was still quite hectic. The steady stream of perticipants kept the registration table busy, but once everyone was registered and settled down things went quite smoothly. Dr. Benny Mamoto’s opening remarks went by without a hitch, and in no time at all, it was time to cut the ribbon!

After the opening, Dr. Benny Mamoto took time to admire all the photographs, along with the rest of the participants. Seeing the yaki’s daily life through Andrew Walmsley’s beautiful shots gave the participants something new to talk about, and hearing the comments and discussions that arose from the photographs assured us that the change of people’s attitude towards the yaki had already started between these participants.

As the participants walked through the exhibition, Yunita gave a commentary on the photographs and the circumstances they were taken. | Sementara para peserta berjalan melihat-lihat pameran, Yunita menceritakan kisah latar dan kondisi di mana foto-foto tersebut diambil.

All too soon it was time to continue with the day’s programme. We would like thank Andrew Walmsley, and all the talented artists who gave us permission to display their work! We’re confident that we can reach people through art and motivate them to create something that will help spread conservation messages – be it through their own artwork, or something more prosaic, like community activities and initiatives. Together we can save the yaki!

As most of you may know, our beloved yaki faces a rather unique threat here in North Sulawesi: being hunted for bushmeat. This problem is particularly bad in the lead-up to major holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here in SY, we’ve taken that into consideration and decided to put up information stands in Tomohon and Langowan, our main target for our upcoming Yaki Pride Campaign, just in time for Christmas! These stands are situated close to the markets, which are known for selling a high level of bushmeat, and we hope that through this awareness raising activity we can reach our intended audience more effectively. So far, we’ve held the information stands for three days, Thursday (12/12), Friday (13/12) and Saturday (12/14), and we’ll hold the last day on Saturday (12/21). Here’s the story behind the first day in Langowan!

The team’s day started with Yunita and Caroline setting off from Manado nice and early in the morning. An early start is necessary because Langowan is a 90-minute drive from Manado, and it’s best to have the information stand set up and ready to go in the morning, at the peak of people’s market activities.

Upon arriving, we were greeted by Kelompok Pencinta Alam Langowan (KPALANG), our partners in Langowan, who had volunteered to help out. The tent was already up, so we got straight to work, putting up the banners first. The information banner hadn’t been up 10 minutes and passers-by were already pausing, or slowing down, to read the information. It was really encouraging to get such quick reaction! We also put up a banner with SLANK’s picture. The idea was that people would know that these music icons supported our cause, and hopefully they’d be motivated to do the same and show their support by signing the banner. We also arranged the items for display – laptop and speakers for the yaki documentary, T-shirts and story books for sale, and a coloring-in station for kids, where they could color their own yaki mask.

Very soon, a large variety of visitors started dropping by. There were people going to and from the market, high school students, government workers on a lunch break, ojek drivers and shop owners. Later in the afternoon a steady stream of children also came by, and the coloring station became very crowded. Firstly the visitors seemed hesitant, but after casual small talk from Yunita and Caroline and the other volunteers, they were soon engaged in conversation and seemed quite enthusiastic in learning more about the yaki. The yaki documentary also played a big part in attracting attention, because visitors got a chance to see the yaki from a different point of view. The SLANK banner was also a big hit with visitors. So far, over 150 people have signed the banner to show their support for our cause! We are optimistic that these visitors gained new, valuable knowledge through our information stands, and would spread the information to their friends and family.

In what felt like no time at all, it was late afternoon and the SY team had to return to Manado. It was a tiring day, but it was worth it! A great big thank you to KPALANG for being such a big help. We’ll see you again soon!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long gap between our blog posts – we’ve had a very busy month here at Selamatkan Yaki, what with Guide Training and Torang Bacirita discussion in a row. Stay with us, we’ll update you with exciting news about those events very soon! Before we jump into those events, we’d like to introduce a member of our team, Ruth Papente. She has been helping since joined the survey team. Let’s read what Ruth has to say about the surveys.

Hello, I am Ruth one of the five surveyors for EARS. I’m really glad to join this team. We thank God for the good time as I got to meet new friends with different ages, basics, and characters though all of us could find a harmony which makes the team solid and close.

Education and Awareness is an important goal of the Selamatkan Yaki Programme. Socialization and campaign to the society are needed to increase the support of conservation. But before starting those activities, it is a must that we need to know about people’s background, attitudes and behaviours. We find the baseline by doing a survey after which we can carry out our Education and Awareness Raising action plan.

The baseline data collection was held in two different places, Langowan village and Tomohon City with more than 781 respondents in eight villages. One of the reasons why we did the survey in these areas is because there are bushmeat markets with a high level trade in each of these places. Results of previous research have shown high level of consumption of bushmeats including yaki. The information we have got will be later compared to the upcoming survey information after the impact of our campaign in the community.

It’s challenging when we must find and meet new people, asking them if they would like to be interviewed, interact with them, and creating a good mood to answer the questions in the questionnaire. It sounds easy but it is actually not. As time passed, we got more used to it, and we started to enjoy being able to control the atmosphere of our interviews.

First of all we had a workshop in the office, then three pilot days in three different villages, which are: Bulo (Tateli) , Kumelembuai (Tomohon), and Kayawu (Tomohon). This was meant to warm us up before collecting the actual data. Then we started to do the surveys in Langowan and Tomohon. In Langowan we had to survey four villages. They are: Noongan, Noongan III, Kawatak, and Walantakan. For Tomohon we have: Tara-tara I, Walian, Talete II , and Kakaskasen I.

We finished the Langowan surveys in one month. There were so many stories and so many things happened in this location. We got to meet respondents in many characters and attitudes; sometimes they received us with big smile, others with a suspicious look, and sometimes they refuse to be our respondent. Then we must find their replacement, like other people in the house or their neighbors. But overall, the people who did agree to be our respondents answered questions quite freely, and things went more or less smoothly. Surveys in Tomohon were a little bit harder than Langowan. It’s because Tomohon is a new developing city, where the citizens were busier and more indifferent. It was interesting to see similarities and also differences in people’s opinions between Langowan and Tomohon, according to the differences between the citizens’ daily activities and basic cultures.

All surveys went well, we thank God for this precious time with hard work and patience of the team. And of course, big thanks to all repondents in Tomohon and Langowan. Thank you for the honest answers, opinions and suggestions. Thank you for all the kindness, may God bless you all.